LIEUTENANT EDGAR JOSEPH WILLIAM WHITEHEAD
ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY
17TH FEBRUARY 1919 AGE 31
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Not everyone who died in the war and is buried in a War Graves Commission cemetery was killed in action or died of wounds, and nor did they have to have died during the war itself, in other words on or before 11 November 1918. In fact, 31 August 1921 was the latest official date of death for inclusion in the War Graves Commission's register of war dead.
Edgar Joseph William Whitehead had been attached to the Printing Company at GHQ, 1st Eschelon, when he died from pneumonia, quite possibly caused by influenza, in the base camp at Etaples on 17 February 1919. Between 1918 and 1920 it is estimated that more than 20 million people died from the influenza pandemic, traditionally known as Spanish Flu. Some authorities put the figure at well over this. There were four waves: spring 1918; summer 1918, which by October
November was extremely virulent; early 1919 and early 1920.
It was not a 'heroic' way to die in the way that being 'killed in action' or 'dying of wounds' were considered to be heroic, but it was not an easy way to die. Victims suffered high temperatures, headaches, joint pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, haemorrhaging and oedema in the lungs leaving them struggling for breath until they suffocated. Hence Edgar Whitehead's last words, "I am trying to keep cheerful and happy".